Dundee draw Scott doesn’t want – until the final

DUNDEE manager Jocky Scott wants to avoid city rivals Dundee United in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup draw – because he would rather keep them for the final.

The Dundee teams face being drawn together for what would be their first competitive match against each other since 2005.

But with Dundee at the top of the First Division and the Arabs competing for third place in the SPL, Scott can think of no better way to end the season that a Hampden final between the two.

He said: “Some people have been talking about a Dundee derby in the quarter-final and that’s understandable. But I would prefer it to be in the final.

“It’s the luck of the draw sometimes on how far you can go in a cup competition but we know ourselves what we can do. We’re really looking forward to Wednesday’s draw and it has been proved in the recent past that smaller clubs can get to the final. We are all excited at the prospect.”

Dundee travel to face last weekend’s opponents Ayr United at Somerset Park this weekend and Scott is delighted to be hitting the road as the Dens Park pitch needs a rest.

He added “The pitch didn’t help against Ayr the other day so in a way it will be nice to have an away match this weekend. We like to get the ball down and play but if the pitch is heavy then it’s more difficult to do that.

“That’s why we struggled to some extent on Saturday although it’s just something we’ve got to contend with. There’s no point moaning about it and the most important thing is that we returned to winning ways and can look to build on that when we got to Ayr.”